Maisky or Michelangeli? Oistrakh or Heifetz? It is difficult for inquiring minds to tackle a field as large and diverse as classical music, covering 10 centuries of history:
there are uncountable numbers of classical music performers in the world. Making a selection of musicians, such as a “top 10” for example, is a difficult and subjective exercise. A musical selection is often the expression of personal preferences or artistic opinions, very interesting but also very different according to critics or musicologists, or simply influenced by the context: will an English performer/musician not be instinctively privileged by an English critic?

For example:
in Canada, Marc-André Hamelin, a Quebec pianist and composer, is at least as popular as the German violinist Anne-Sofie Mutter, who is more internationally renowned.

The information presented below (timeline, top 10, alphabetical index) is absolutely neutral. They are the result of a strictly quantitative analysis, based only on global and independent sources. They were treated without favouring any particular musician or excluding any artist deemed less relevant by elitism, conformism or for any other reason.

Timeline of classical musicians, between 1900 and 2000+

Whoever wants to discover classical music does not always have an experienced music lover, an expert or an educator at his or her side to support and guide him or her in this field. So : Maisky (Latvian-Israeli cellist) or Michelangeli (Italian pianist) ? Landowska (Polish-French classical harpsichordist) or Menuhin (American violinist and conductor (1916-1999)) ? However, the knowledge available about musicians is enormous. It was processed to select the 10, 25, 50... most popular performers around the world, for those living or having lived between 1900 and 2000+. And this objectively, and for the first time (soClassiQ exclusivity).

This timeline is interactive to navigate through the ages or across continents (with ).

Why are all these composers included in this timeline?

Many composers have also been concert performers or conductors, although their fame is associated with their work today. On the other hand, some conductors such as Arturo Toscanini, Georg Solti ... or musicians such as Martha Argerich, Vladimir Horowitz, Glenn Gould ... have also composed. Itzhak Perlman, David Oïstrakh... very well known as concert performers, have also conducted orchestras. Others, such as Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, William Christie ..., are renowned as much for their careers as composers, conductors and performers.

Top 10 classical musicians for the years 1900-2000+

Who are these greatest performers, the most famous over the 1900-2000+ era? The carreer of these musician has marked the history of classical music. There are those you probably know, or at least by name and the others.

What about the others? 25, 50 or more?

Summarizing to 10 musician names such a wide and diverse field may seem extreme or too simplistic for those who know classical music well, for those who can easily name 50 or more classical music performers. Lang, Fleming, Cortot, Lisitsa, Callas, Hahn, Barenboim...

At this time, soClassiQ has listed more than 10000 performers. So here is a selection of some performers for the years 1900-2000+, widely recognized around the world:

Note:

This selection may include highly reputed artists and musicians who have occasionally devoted themselves to classical music and not exclusively.

It may also include performers who have been or are composers, some more renowned for the work they have left than for their careers as musicians.

Some performers to be celebrated very soon

Next month, more than 40 important artists and musicians will be honoured. In July 2020 some of them may celebrate a special anniversary. For others, amateurs and enthusiasts will celebrate the bicentenary of their birth or the fiftieth anniversary of their death for example. Among them, some famous performers: